Daryna is a 29-year-old woman with very severe ME/CFS, Myasthenia Gravis (MG), and multiple other comorbidities. After years of enduring both her illnesses and the war in Ukraine, she has evacuated to Berlin, Germany, but she remains bedbound, entirely dependent on hired caregivers for daily survival, and in urgent need of ongoing support while she works to secure stable medical care in a new country.

We are asking for your ongoing support to cover Daryna's rent, caregiving, and medical costs for MG and ME/CFS.

Donations go directly toward Daryna's essential daily needs: rent, the caregivers she cannot survive without, food, medicine, and doctor's appointments.

Her story so far

Daryna Ilina first began experiencing symptoms in late summer 2021. After three years of endless doctor visits, tests, and misdiagnoses, she was diagnosed with both MG and ME/CFS in late 2024, with other suspected comorbidities. In addition to ME/CFS and MG, she lives with immune deficiency (chronic EBV reactivations and susceptibility to infections), autonomic dysfunction (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), secondary adrenal insufficiency, a combination of conditions that each worsen the others.

While she was still in Ukraine, her condition deteriorated due to lack of specialized care, ongoing war stress, housing and financial instability, and an inability to access proper treatment. Despite objective test results confirming her diagnoses, both her MG and ME/CFS were heavily psychologized by doctors there, who treated her as though her illnesses weren’t real. That medical neglect nearly killed her: in May, Daryna suffered a myasthenic crisis, a critical MG exacerbation that stops a person from breathing, and was hospitalized on oxygen, IV fluids, and glucose, narrowly avoiding tube feeding. She was discharged while still in crisis. It was this discharge that prompted an urgent medical evacuation to Germany.

Aftermath of November 17th shelling to Daryna's building and neighboring buildings

The crisis also caused her ME/CFS to progress from severe to profound. It has since come back down to very severe, but she remains bedbound and unable to eat or use the toilet without help.

Throughout all of this, Daryna also lived through the escalating war in Dnipro, including a winter without heat after Russian strikes on the power grid, and repeated periods of shelling that made any kind of baseline recovery from her illness impossible.

How things stand now

About two months ago, with the help of this community, Daryna was able to arrange medical transport to Berlin. She has since found an apartment, hired local caregiving, and is in the process of registering as a refugee, a process that takes time and has not yet been completed. A doctor in Berlin has confirmed her diagnoses, and Germany's public health system has more resources and understanding of both ME/CFS and MG than she had access to in Ukraine.

But please don't mistake this progress for stability. Daryna is currently in the worst physical state of her life. She has no income of her own and does not receive any government support. She is navigating a new country, a new healthcare system, and an overwhelming amount of logistics almost entirely alone, while bedbound, with no family nearby. A caregiver comes daily to prepare her food, feed her, help her with toileting and hygiene, and manage laundry and medications; without this support, she cannot survive.

ME/CFS and MG are chronic; they don't go away, though they can sometimes be managed with the right care. Daryna has a long road ahead of her, and right now, that road depends entirely on this fund. Without continued support, she will have no choice but to return to Ukraine.

How your donation helps

Your donations cover: rent, daily caregiving, food, medications, and doctor's visits, totaling approximately $4,733/month. None of these costs are currently covered by government assistance. A full breakdown of monthly expenses is below.

If you can donate any amount, even $5, it will go a long way. Please consider a monthly recurring donation; it provides not just financial support, but some predictability in an otherwise very unstable situation.

This fundraiser is organized by Sarah, a close friend of Daryna's, along with co-organizer Jon. We are committed to full transparency about how funds are used, and to updating this page as Daryna's situation evolves.

Thank you for your support.

If you’re unable to donate, please consider liking and sharing this fundraiser.

About Sarah Payne, GoFundMe organizer for Daryna:

Hi, I'm Sarah. Daryna and I are friends, former roommates, and former colleagues from when we both lived in Denmark. We met while working at Lenus eHealth in Copenhagen in 2022. We quickly became friends, which is easy to do when you both like similar music, thrifting, cooking, and trying to make a new PR. Daryna also moved into my flat and we became roommates before she moved back to Ukraine. We had some hyggeligt times together in our small unit! I have since also moved from Denmark to the US. I created this GoFundMe to help Daryna cover her medical needs.

Funds transparency:

All funds donated to this GoFundMe are transferred to me, Sarah Payne, and as soon as any of those transfers are completed, I directly transfer the money to Daryna through PayPal. I regularly audit my bank account to make sure I don't accidentally miss any payments. Daryna really needs the funds. As mentioned above, funds are used for her direct medical care, caregiving, rent, and food.

Funds use:

Daryna's needs have evolved over time. Now that she is in Berlin, fundraising efforts also cover the cost of a caregiver, rent, and food.

Monthly expenses:

Caregiving: $2,080 (€1,800)

Rent: $1,330 (€1,150)

Medication: $640 (€450)

Food: $400 (€350)

Platform fees: $333 (€307)

Monthly total: $4,733 (€4,107)